It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade, old landmarks crumble and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.

You Say You Don't Have Time?

So you say that you don’t have time to do that thing you’ve been meaning to do, don’t have time to get involved in that activist cause, don’t have time to walk instead of driving a car, don’t have time to plant a vegetable garden this year to help revitalize the local food infrastructure?

Maybe, just maybe you’re telling the truth. However, the chances are that, if you say that you don’t have the time to do that sort of thing, and you’re an American, you’re lying.

The chances are that you have plenty of time to do that kind of stuff. You’d just rather be doing something else: Namely, watching television. The Neilsen Company, which provides the data that support television ratings, concludes that the average American above the age of two watched 151 hours of television per month in October, November and December of 2008.

That’s a little bit under 5 hours per day.

What could you do with 5 more hours per day, if you weren’t watching television?

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To keep our voices independent of moneyed interests, the writers of Irregular Times have never accepted money for advertising on this website. But we still have to pay the bills! To help cover our expenses, we sell our own designs of liberal activist bumper stickers, buttons and sweatshop-free shirts.